Cleveland Clinic study

Cleveland Clinic endocrine surgeons reviewed the medical records of more than 7,000 patients to see how often at-risk patients were evaluated for PHPT. They looked for patients withpersistently high blood calcium levels plus a related condition such as:

Kidney stones

Osteopenia (bone thinning)

Osteoporosis

Depression

“We determined that 43 percent of our study population had undiagnosed or unrecognized PHPT,” says Dr. Shin. “Even in patients with biochemical studies that were consistent with PHPT, the diagnosis was not always documented, nor were they referred for surgical treatment.”

Patients with high blood calcium levels should have follow-up testing for PTH and vitamin D levels, she adds. Together, the three tests can confirm the diagnosis of PHPT.